Election Exhaustion? Stay Awake, Women, Stay Awake

YOU KNOW THIS...

Back in the day, you couldn't have a credit card in your name if you were single. If you were married, your husband had to sign for you.

You know this too: You couldn't serve on a jury in all states until 1973. You couldn't go to Yale or Princeton until 1969, or Brown until 1971, Dartmouth in 1972, and Columbia, 1981. (To make it personal, upon graduation from high school in 1976 I set my sights on journalism. No Columbia for me. We can't even imagine that kind of blanket restriction today, can we?)

Until 1993 you couldn't refuse to have sex with your husband. In other words, forcing one's wife to have sex was not considered rape—and you had no legal means to control your body's ability to bear children.

And equality in the workplace? In 1963 women were paid 59 cents for every dollar men earned. You could be fired for being pregnant. And sexual harassment was de riguer. (What woman doesn't have a story to tell on this subject?)

HERE WE ARE. ELECTION DAY LOOMS.

One thing I think we can all agree on here around the She Negotiates campfire is that we don't want to go backward in time, if for nothing else, the gains we are making in the workplace. Implicit bias is no longer just a topic other people talk about, it's part of the national conversation. Sexual harassment (and assault) is so hugely, bigly on display that pretty much everyone is awake to what it looks and feels like.

Let's stay awake.  Let's stay very awake.